Twitter CEO stepping down
The boss and co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey has decided to step down as the current chief technical officer (CEO). Dorsey was serving as CEO for both Twitter and his payment company, called Square. It was back in 2006 that Mr Dorsey co-founded Twitter, however he now expressed his concerns and said in a statement, “It’s finally time for me to leave.” The current chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal, will take over Twitter and has been with twitter since 2011, and was the head of technology since 2017.
Mr Dorsey believes that the company is ready to move on from its founders and didn’t give any specific details as to why he’s decided to leave. His position will be taken by Parag Agrawal, who is Twitter’s chief technology officer. Mr Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and has held his current position since 2017 and has been in charge of the strategy involving artificial intelligence and machine learning in Twitter’s software.
The news did not come as a surprise to the members of the board who had already been preparing to say goodbye to Mr Dorsey for over a year. Perhaps Mr Dorsey’s most controversial move came last year, when he decided to ban former President Donald Trump from using Twitter, after the Capitol riots. This decision caused quite a lot of backlash particularly from strong Trump supporters. Mr Dorsey believes that banning Donald Trump from the platform was the right decision but that it sets a dangerous precedent.
Mr Dorsey is currently in his mid-40s and still has extraordinary visions to change the world for the better. The change in CEO also comes with other leadership changes to the existing Twitter board and Mr Dorsey described his trust in Agrawal as “bone deep.” Both of them have a shared vision of decentralising social media. Furthermore, Agrawal has been involved in the creation of Project Bluesky, which is an open-source project which looks to build and open standard for social media.
Facebook aka Meta
The word “meta” made huge headlines this year due to Facebook’s rebrand and what it means for the future of the company. The name actually comes from ancient Greece and has a wide array of meaning such as “with”, “after”, “alongside” etc. However, in general, “meta- ” indicates a change of place such as in the word metamorphosis. Furthermore the name is linked to the Greek philosopher Aristotle and that’s where we get the word “metaphysics”, the branch of philosophy that deals with the fundamentals of existence itself.
Recently, during a livestream, Mark Zuckerberg, who is the CEO of the company, announced that the company will change the name Facebook to “Meta”. This rebranding applies to the business itself which means that other social platforms that Facebook (or Meta) owns will still operate in the same way as before. Facebook has ownership of popular apps used by millions of users and these include Instagram and WhatsApp. Mr Zuckerberg recently said, “It is time for use to adopt a new company brand, and to encompass everything we do.”
Despite the success of the business, there is a significant pushback against the company, particularly from UK’s competition regulator. After making a purchase of Giphy for $400 million, it is now being ordered to sell it back. This is due to the fear that Meta could stifle the competition in the social media market, particularly for smaller businesses. The most apparent way that Meta could do this is by stopping users on competing platforms from using Giphy content.
Mr Zuckerberg spoke how, “Facebook is one of the most used products in the world, but it increasingly doesn’t encompass everything that we do.” There had been a slight increase in the stock price of Facebook since it changed its name. The company makes more acquisitions than most people realised. In total, it has bought 93 companies since it was founded.
Sources: BBC, Newsweek, techcrunch
Omicron and what it means for the world
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been identified in many locations across the world. The risk that this new variant poses means that many nations around the world are now urgently trying to identify just how many cases they have. If the situation doesn’t get better, then there is a risk of borders being closed as many have already experienced many times before. The new mutation, is apparently more transmissible than most other variants and it was first detected in South Africa.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that this particular variant could pose a very high risk to many people all around the world. Although it is still quite early to make any conclusive statements, initial evidence does suggest that it is more transmissible. The WHO, said in a statement, “Omicron has an unprecedented number of spike mutations…” Swabs from PCR tests can be sent to labs to show which particular type of variant someone has.
In the UK, the advice for people with Covid symptoms has remained the same, which is that you must stay at home and spend 10 days self isolating. However the recent update states that anyone in contact with the person who has a positive result must also self-isolate for 10 days, even if they are fully vaccinated. There have been some positive cases of the Omicron variant in the UK, however it is likely that many more cases of the variant are already in the UK, and yet to be detected.
Cases have also been reported in a number of countries which include Portugal, the Netherlands, and Canada. There has been an urgent ban by these countries to stop any travel from South African countries. It is important to note that this decision has been heavily criticised by the South African President. Furthermore, Japan has announced that it is closing borders to all new foreign visitors from the beginning of December.
World's most expensive city to live in
It has been revealed that the new title holder for the most expensive city to live in is Tel Aviv, in Israel. This has been due to the sky-high inflation and the problems with the supply chain due to the pandemic. The change in consumer demands have pushed the cost of living not just in Tel Aviv, but in many cities all across the world. The top spot last year was held by Paris, which is now tied with Singapore in second place.
In Tel Aviv, there was a significant increase in food and transport costs, however this recent report didn’t look at house prices. Many people living in the city talk about how hard it is to live there and most people in recent years have seen their expenses nearly doubled. Tel Aviv has a very profitable high-tech infrastructure and the shekel, Israel’s currency, is one of the world’s strongest currencies.
There were many global supply-chain problems during Covid-19 and these have all pushed prises up. The strict rules around social restrictions are affecting trade and production for many countries all across the world, and with the new Omicron variant being recently reported, it seems those issues are here to stay longer. In comparison, the highest rising city was actually Tehran, which made an astonishing jump from 79th place to No.29, that’s 50 places. This was due to further US sanctions which resulted in more shortages, along with the pandemic, and therefore higher prices.
Alternatively, the cheapest city to live in the world right now is Damascus in Syria. This is because the damage done from war means that the economy is in a huge state of despair. The overall survey compares the costs of goods and services in US dollars, and the total number of cities included are 173. There are a number of other cities that also suffered from very high inflation during 2021 and this includes Caracas in Venezuela and Buenos Aires in Argentina.
Sources: CNN, Belfast telegraph, BBC